


Every Night I Save You

by reddish



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, ME2, Mass Effect 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-24
Updated: 2013-07-24
Packaged: 2017-12-21 04:52:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/896014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reddish/pseuds/reddish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble inspired by my idea of how Garrus responds to Shepard's death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Night I Save You

As the escape pod doors opened, cold air whipped around Garrus, breaking through his shields and hitting him straight in the teeth. The chill stung, but the bite of panic at his throat sent him running, away from the safety of the pod’s interior.

“Garrus!” Ashley shouted behind him. “Wait!”

Her words fell away, deadened by the snow and Garrus’s focus. In the distance, he saw a pod. He knew it was a long shot, but damned if he wasn’t good at taking long shots by now. His feet trudged through snow too deep for comfort, climbing the hill toward the pod, the last to crash, the last to leave.

The door slid open as he approached, his breath hanging as frost in the air.

Ashley and Liara’s hands were the only thing keeping him from tearing Joker apart.

* * *

 

But that’s not how it happened. Not really. No, this time, Garrus is the one on the bridge when the shit falls apart, not Liara. Garrus volunteers to get Joker out of the cockpit, but Winter declines.

“Get in the fucking pod, Garrus. We don’t have time for this!”

“I can carry him, you get the pod ready!”

Winter shakes her head. “He won’t listen to you. You get the pod ready, I’ll be back in five seconds.” Her hands grasp his shoulders. “But you are leaving if it takes me six seconds, Vakarian. You hear me? I don’t have time for your manly insubordination.”

“SPIRITS,” Garrus swears as another blast hits the ship. “Go!”

Winter runs to the cockpit, Garrus prepares the shuttle. He sees through the smoke that Joker is giving her pause. It’s been five seconds. Through the cracks in the bridge, he can see the ship preparing another, final blast.

He runs to her and grabs her arm, pulling her out of the ship’s fire and into the shuttle as it closes behind them. Joker is lost with the Normandy. They will mourn, together.

* * *

 

No, that’s stupid. Winter would never allow him to pull such a boneheaded, arrogant move. And even if he did try that shit, she’d never trust him again.

This time, it’s not a matter of obeying her orders or trying to save the day in a flash of heroism. Instead, Garrus does his damn job _correctly_ and catches the ship before it has a chance to sneak up on them. His warning message to Shepard gets to her just before the first attack. Some crew are lost, but everyone else makes it to safety while the Normandy is destroyed.

 

Winter rests her head on his shoulder as they fly away to safety, and he braces her with his arm for comfort, knowing she’s lost another home, but not another family.

* * *

 

But those didn’t happen.

Well, they do happen. Every night. For two years, or at least until Garrus’s squad on Omega is betrayed.  

But not when it mattered.

* * *

 

Garrus is backed into a corner, made to fight for his life against a seemingly endless flow of people who want him dead. _Idiots_ , he thinks. _I don’t want this life. It tastes like ashes._

He sees a face in his scope, and he feels his heart beat again for the first time in two years.

* * *

 

Garrus is a little drunk, and Winter is alive against him.

“I saved you, you know,” he drawls against her, his mandible brushing the bare skin where her neck meets her shoulder.

“What’s that?” she asks, holding him there.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t, when it mattered, but… I just want you to know. I saved you.”

Winter closes her eyes and rests her head against his, so he can’t see her cry. “Go to sleep, Garrus.”

“You’re always alive in my dreams,” he whispers.


End file.
